P. H. Emerson drew his
subjects from the environment and daily rituals of rural life in East Anglia,
the marshy coastal region northeast of London. He passed along his expertise in
more than a half-dozen books,

the first and most important
of which was Life and Landscape on the Norfolk
Broads, lavishly illustrated with platinum prints such as this one.
Instead of straightforward documentation or contrived tableaux, Emerson opted for
a more impressionist vision, inspired by the work of painters such as Jean-François
Millet. Emerson blazed a trail that would be followed by the American Pictorialists,
the Photo-Secession, and modern photography.